Tracking Climate and Environmental Changes to Safeguard Ecosystems

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to invite contributions to this Special Issue, titled “Tracking Climate and Environmental Changes to Safeguard Ecosystems”. Human development constantly alters the functioning of ecosystems. As ecosystem and climate services degrade, the resulting changes to Earth’s systems become increasingly severe, particularly for human populations. Preventing biodiversity losses is essential to avoiding ecological collapse. Addressing these challenges requires a more conscious and engaged society, willing to understand the impact it generates on ecosystems and act to prevent it. Equally essential is political leadership that rises to the occasion, fully grasps the magnitude of the problem, and acknowledges the need for sustained monitoring and scientific investigation.

We must deepen our understanding of how climate processes drive environmental changes, so we can manage ecosystems sustainably. However, achieving this requires a renewed dialogue between the meteorology and ecology sectors. For decades, weather prediction has relied on computational models that simplify atmospheric complexity through parameterization, a method that replaces unresolved physical processes with empirical approximations. While effective for short-term forecasting, these models are designed to improve meteorological predictions, not to support ecological understanding. Critical interactions in the atmosphere–ocean, hydrology, and land systems are often simplified.

Rather than simplifying these processes, there is a growing need to embrace their complexity by searching for patterns within dynamic interactions. Some of the complex processes are, for example, mesoscale ocean currents that influence atmospheric stability, land-use changes that alter thermodynamic properties, or coastal ecosystems, such as seagrass beds and coral reefs, which regulate carbon flows. Understanding this complexity is essential and can be achieved through dynamic process analysis. Based on this analysis, focused on the interactions between the different components of Earth’s systems, we gain a more comprehensive lens for understanding the complex interplay between atmosphere, ocean, land, and life. Pioneering meteorological models included these process analyses, yet their potential was sidelined due to computational limitations and the prioritization of meteorological goals. To move forward, we must recognize that these simplifications are no longer sufficient for addressing the complex, interconnected challenges of climate change and ecosystem degradation. A proactive approach rooted in the analysis of dynamic processes enables more efficient resource management of ecosystems, ensuring that ecosystems are protected against a rapidly changing climate.

This Special Issue aims to encourage the submission of original research studies and reviews that explore the intersection between meteorology, ecology, and environmental science, using dynamic process analyses to better understand and predict ecosystem resilience in the face of climate change. The scope includes, but is not limited to, dynamic process analysis and its application to climate and ecosystem modelling to avoid ecosystem and climate service degradation, and the understanding of the relationship between biodiversity loss and climate system changes to avoid ecological collapse.

The goal is to compile at least 10 high-quality contributions that provide novel insights into the critical role of ecosystems in climate processes. This Special Issue will be an integral addition to the journal’s scope, which focuses on the dynamic and integrated nature of environmental systems.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Monitoring climate;
• Meteorological models’ results;
• Ocean–atmosphere interactions and their impact on land-use systems;
• The role of ecosystems;
• Methods for integrating ecological processes into climate models.

I look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Pedro Antonio Arnau del Amo
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• biodiversity
• climate change
• ecosystem and climate services
• dynamic process analysis
• ocean–atmosphere interactions
• ecosystem resilience
• land-use change
• climate models